Customer Reviews

Hellboy: Right Hand of Doom (Hellboy)

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The Adventures of Hellboy have gone through many different venues, from short stories collected in obscure DHP issues to one shot trials that are oftentimes easy to miss. Still, many of these are important when trying to understand the entirety of the Hellboy saga, and other, less crucial stories are still worth reading. That's why I'm glad to see the Trade Paperbacks The Chain Coffin and Others and The Right Hand of Doom. Between the two, you can find so many things that are nearly impossible to find.
In the Right Hand of Doom, you get:
1) Pancakes, a short comical approach to Hellboy's youth involving pancakes and hell's fate. Also, it appears in color for the first time here.
2) The Nature of the Beast, a DHP story involving the testing of Hellboy, a dilemma with a dragon, and blood that turns into lilies. Definitely good, and in color for the first time.
3) King Vold, a tale meshing many Norwegian tales together into a very entertain story pitting Hellboy against man's great adversary, human greed.
4) Heads, from Abe Sapien: Drums of the Dead (a comic you should definately pick up because the Abe Sapien story hasn't been reproduced), involves Hellboy's encounter with Japanese folklore and floating heads. Its really nice looking.
5) Goodbye, Mister Tod, from Gary Gianni's The Monstermen, a tale that meshes more Lovecraftian themeage than normal into Hellboy's life.
6) The Varcolac, a completely redone piece that first appeared in Dark Horse Extra, something nice in its new version but not as good in its original. Here's a tale involving Romanian vampires that, according to Mignola's knowledge of folklore, "eats the sun and the moon and is able to cause eclipses."
7) The Right Hand of Doom, a story leading into a pivotal part in the understanding of just what's going on in Hellboy, mentioning his hand and its origins. It makes its first appearance here in color.
8) Box Full of Evil, a wonderful story that explains the "beast of the apocalypse" connotations floating around Hellboy all the time, complete with an extra four page epilogue to help out with clarity.
This is a wonderful collection of tales, and is really worth reading for the Hellboy fan and newcomer alike. To say it strays from the atypical would be an understatement.

"Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom" is Hellboy at its finest. Like HP Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe, it is in the short story that Mignola really shines with his hell-born characters.

This short story collection contains a host of odd and enjoyable adventures for Anung Un Rama, otherwise known as Hellboy. Making his way through the mythologies and folklore of several countries, he encounters beasties like Japanese vampires, King Vold and Roger. Well-researched, Mignola threads together these various traditionals into a cohesive story, with the Christian God and Devil at the center, and Hellboy bridging the gap.

By far some of the most intelligent and well-written stories in modern comics, Hellboy never disappoints. Non-comics readers as well enjoy Hellboy, and my copy has been well-read by many people. "Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom" is an excellent starting point, and can be read with no previous knowledge of the characters.

"He has eaten the pancakes. He will never come back to us now."

When I first saw this book at the library, I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought it was going to be another one of those: "lets kill a bunch of people, in-between stupid wise-cracks, because that's what the kids think is cool today." Thank God I was proven wrong. This is one of the best books I have ever read. Hellboy is a paranormal investigator who also happens to be the son of the Devil. In this collection we follow Hellboy's journey, from his earlier days when he first taste of pancakes costs Hell the grip on his soul--to his later years where Hellboy learns that should he ever lose control he will bring about the Apocalypse. All the stories are good, most are modern retellings of old folklore stories ("Heads" for example is an old japanese ghost story about a group of headless ghouls who lure strangers to their home, and then eat them. This story along with many others in collection can be found, in their original form, in Time-Life's Enchanted World series--particularly "Ghosts", "Night Creatures", and "Tales of Terror".) My favorite story is the one about King Void-- The Wild Huntsman who every night rides forth seeking the souls of damned. Less psychotic than John Constantine, more grounded than Fox Maulder, Hellboy is without a doubt one of the most original characters in comics today. The artwork alone by Mike Mignola is worth 5 stars.

Largely a collection of unconnected stories, it starts off with the classic "Pancakes", a tale of the young Hellboy that registers the exact moment when the hordes of Hell realised that their emissary (Hellboy, in possession of the right hand of Doom no less) had been lost to them. "No way, I don't like pamcakes! ...Hey! I love it!!" Then there's Hellboy's meeting with the Osiris Club, who send him to slay a dragon in the forest - which he defeats in a lucky, bumbling way (see also his meeting with Anubis in Issue 1). In King Vold, he meets an opportunistic folklorist, who has a fey (and treacherous) way of dealing with a cursed hunter in the sky and his were-demon... much to Hellboy's (and eventually his) regret. "Heads" is a great adventure in Japan, when Hellboy meets a group of ghouls. One of them tells a peculiar "funny story"... but Hellboy knows what they are and he is ready for their trap. There's a misadventure with a piece of Lovecraftean ectoplasm who channels a psychic, and then a meeting with a vampire who makes Hellboy dream of the ultimate Varcolac (I first learned about this Romanian creature in the 1963 Mario Bava film Black Sabbath, starring Boris Karaloff - yes, it's the film that gave the band the name, except it was spelled as Wurdalak). The Right Hand of Doom is a short-ish story where nothing much happens, but a priest tells Hellboy the story about his red right hand. "Box Full Of Evil" is a fascinating study in minor demons and earthly damnation, as well as a bit of a mystery - who is this strange fat man who uses the hand of a hanged man as a candle to help him incapacitate people - black magic! Demons resurrect (minor demons), Hellboy is nearly beaten to death, he discovers his true nature and triumphs; Abe Sapien battles a monkey, and Hellboy re-encounters the leprechauns; finally a bit of Astaroth action as a major demon makes an appearance to... have a talk. Wow.

Great guest sketches at the end, including ones by Michael Allred, and also Frank Miller.

The absolute best thing about each Hellboy collection is Mike Mignola's obvious love and passion for his creation. Hearing him speak about why he made this or did that you can just imagine him sitting there smiling the whole time. That's the thing with Hellboy. Although the plots usually involve gross demonic figures, dark stories, and/or death and mayhem they always make me smile. Overall this is another fine collection and a must for any Hellboy fan. Really good stuff!

"Hellboy, Volume 4: The Right Hand of Doom" is another great Hellboy collection, telling a handful of effective tales ranging from the apocalyptic to the hilarious (I'm mainly thinking of the two-page "Pancakes" as an example of the latter). As well as the terrific stories, Mike Mignola's art continues to be a wonder, inexplicably combining in a perfectly successful manner scary realism with a kind of stylish impressionism; and, similarly, a powerful heaviness with a dreamlike airiness. I don't know how the diverse visual elements all come together but they do. Like the previous volumes, this one is a lot of fun and shouldn't be missed.

I LOVE Hellboy! Have the first 8 books and the first four BPRD books, plus the 3 collections of short stories and both movies!

Did I say that I LOVE HELLBOY!!!!

Hellboy is probably the best horror comic on the market. Definitely buy it if you like horror, or are trying to get into a different kind of comic.

Mike Mignola is a revolutionary comic author with a unique style in both artwork and storytelling. If you are a fan of mythology based detective adventure (because everybody is :)) then you want to check out Hellboy graphic novels, you will not be disappointed.

When Hellboy isn't saving the world from imminent destruction, he's doing a lot of little odd jobs across the world.

And by "odd jobs," I mean brief paranormal cases involving vampires, flying hunters, homunculi, "pamcakes" and disembodied heads. "Hellboy Volume 4: The Right Hand of Doom" collects a number of the demon anti-hero's assorted adventures, ranging from a new and unknown breakfast to a devilish plot to conquer the world. All in a day's work.

It opens with a baby Hellboy being given a plate of "pamcakes," which he pronounces to be "yucky." But when a general sternly orders him to eat one bite, the consequences are literally hell-raising.

Seriously, isn't that the cutest thing ever?

Many years later, Hellboy is called on to deal with mythological creatures large and small -- the Saint Leonard worm (a dragon) running amuck in a forest, a spectral huntsman followed by berserkers in wolf pelts, a Japanese house full of bouncing heads, a seance gone horribly wrong (with Lovecraftian tentacles!), and the supervampire Varcolac who is so large he can "eat the moon."

And though Hellboy tries to ignore his past and supposed destiny, he learns something quite disturbing when a kindly priest gives him an ancient, mysterious drawing of the "right hand of doom" -- which looks suspiciously like Hellboy's big rocky hand.

And a demon (which looks suspiciously like a housefly) sealed into a box is stolen from a secret compartment, and is soon "serving" a human master. Turns out they want to lure Hellboy to that place, in the hopes of stealing the evil, apocalyptic powers that he has already renounced.

Mike Mignola is awesome at full-length graphic novels, but his shorter works are even better -- these are lean, compact little action stories with nothing more or less than they need. And it's sort of nice to see Hellboy's more ordinary cases -- if you can call these ordinary -- with foes like a "Wild Huntesque" horseman, a dragon and even some traditional Japanese hobgoblins.

And Mignola's writing doesn't suffer from the shorter format, especially since he happily adapts some folktales to fit his world (legends, folk tales, saints). There's wonderfully sick moments ("Hey, that's not my spine!") and some poignant moments (Hellboy musing on his "destiny"). Naturally, also plenty of nastier moments including bouncing heads, giant monstrous tentacles from the "deep end of the pool," a vampire that can "eat the moon," and a man turning into a giant lizard.

Hellboy is basically your average investigator in most of these stories -- he goes in, gets the job done and fixes things (although sometimes he can't quite fix EVERYTHING). He's a nice straightforward kind of guy with a gruff manner, but Mignola reminds us at times that he has some unhappier facets ("You know how I live? I never deal with what I am"), and a destiny he keeps rejecting.

"Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom" follows the example of the prior collection -- lots of solid standalone adventures for our horned anti-hero. Lovely read.